Cunningham’s chin betrays him against Glowacki

By Boxing News - 04/17/2016 - Comments

1-Glowacki v Cunningham_Fight_Ryan Greene _ Premier Boxing Champions7By Scott Gilfoid: Steve Cunningham (28-8, 13 KOs) fought well enough to be within striking distance of beating WBO cruiserweight champion Krzysztof Glowacki (26-0, 16 KOs) if it hadn’t been for Cunningham getting knocked down four times in the fight. If you take away those four knockdowns, Cunningham would have won the fight clearly.

Glowacki got the victory by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 116-108, 115-109 and 115-109 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. But you’ve got to ask yourself when was the last time you saw a fighter get knocked down four times and wind up losing by the slim 115-109 scores we saw in that fight.

Man, it was close, real close. Cunningham showed off his talent in the rounds he wasn’t getting knocked down in. Glowacki got a couple of knockdowns in the 2nd round, one in the 10th and another in the 12th. The knockdown in the 10th shouldn’t have even counted because Glowacki tagged Cunningham with an elbow to the head. I saw the elbow as plain as day and I can’t believe the ref didn’t see what I saw.

“I’m just disappointed,” said Cunningham. “I knew I just had to work. The corner kept telling me to go to the body more in the later rounds. I’ve been down before. I knew I had to go at this guy. He punched with me and caught me coming in,” said Cunningham. “I knew after the second round knockdowns that I had to get rounds back and go get him. He’s a smart fighter.”

I thought Cunningham boxed beautifully. He was taking the 29-year-old Glowacki’s left hands and coming back with some really nice rights to the head and body. I like the way that Cunningham was pushing the fight. If not for him, there wouldn’t have been a fight because Glowacki was just standing and waiting for Cunningham to do something in the fight.
Cunningham fought like someone in his late 20s rather than someone in his late 30s. Cunningham must have found Ponce De Leon’s fountain of youth because he looked like the younger fighter out there last night. What a talent.

Cunningham would obviously like a rematch with Glowacki so that he can prove to the boxing world that he’s the better fighter. Unfortunately, it looks like Glowacki will be fighting his #1 WBO mandatory challenger next in Olesandr Usyk. That’s going to be an awfully tough fight for Glowacki because Usyk is a monstrous puncher with good size and an incredible ability to box. I can’t see Glowacki winning the fight unless he drops Usyk a half dozen times of knocks him out. Usyk is the type who will win every round of the fight with his skills.

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“The plan from the beginning was to hit him with the left hand and you could tell I was hitting with full power,” said Glowacki. “I couldn’t hit that hard against Marco Huck because of my injury and now I’m hoping to keep that power up in my next fight.”

I don’t imagine that Cunningham’s chin is going to get better at his age, but he can surely improve on his defensive ability. If he can avoid getting hit flush with Glowacki’s hands in the future rematch, then I think he can definitely beat him because he’s the better fighter than him in my view.

The only problem that Cunningham has is how he can get a rematch. He’s going to have to wait a while and keep winning if he wants to get a second shot at the Polish fighter, and even then, it might be under less desirable circumstances than the first fight. If Glowacki loses to Usyk, then Cunningham will need to make a decision whether to go after Glowacki or the WBO title. I think the obvious answer is the title is the thing that Cunningham should focus on.